Secretary of state makes house call, shows ease of online voter signup

Secretary of State Wayne Williams helped Esther Mesquida change her voter status to unaffiliated during a fundraiser for Jeb Bush this week. (Photo courtesy of the Maria Garcia Berry)

Well, that was easy.

Esther Mesquida was at a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush at the home of her daughter and her husband, Colorado politicos Maria Garcia Berry and Chuck Berry, Monday night when she struck up a conversation with Secretary of State Wayne Williams.

The 85-year-old lifelong Democrat told Williams she had been thinking of changing her voter registration to unaffiliated.

Williams asked if Mesquida had her driver’s license and if there was a computer available — “both answers were yes, we did this in 30 seconds and he made her whole year!!!!” Garcia Berry posted on her Facebook wall Tuesday.

It was all in a day’s work, Williams said. “While I don’t normally make house calls, I do enjoy helping people register and vote. That’s why I love serving as secretary of state,” he said.

Williams has not endorsed any presidential candidate, but went to the Bush event as a guest, his office said.

Mesquida said she wanted to become an unaffiliated voter, because this time around she doesn’t support the party’s presidential frontrunner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, her daughter said. Mesquida said party members should be loyal to its nominee. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean they automatically become loyal to the other party, Garcia Berry recounted Tuesday, and that’s how she arrived at going neutral.

She took that position rather than bow to the presence of Bush and her Republican family at the event.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.